Field of the Invention
The present invention refers to a device for rotating a label fed into a labelling machine.
It is well known to those skilled in the art that the position of a label on a product has to be in compliance with the postal regulations in force in various countries and that the various countries have different postal regulations.
Therefore, it is not always easy to meet the required positioning because of the difficulties in handling the label.
In fact, labelling machines which pick up each single label one by one and then put said labels on the product to be packaged or on the product which only needs the address are known.
In particular, the working phases of a known labelling machine can be summarized as follows.
The labels are placed on a continuous sheet, as for instance a printout provided with opposed perforated lateral edges suitable to drive the printout, which initially is folded several times one sheet over the other or in a zigzag pattern.
A series of printed portions are present on the printout and said printed portions will constitute the various labels.
A drive system is provided with wheels having pins which engage with the printout lateral edges, which are provided with holes and therefore the printout advances on a horizontal plane, such that the printings on the various label portions face downwardly.
The printout is cut and divided by longitudinal and transverse cutters to obtain rows formed by a certain number of labels.
The label rows are picked up by a perforated conveyor belt, with a suction device, which carries said labels to a wheel which picks up and then releases the labels on the product where said labels have to be positioned.
The labels are then picked up, one by one, from the wheel and said labels are put in contact with a glue buffer. Then said labels are released on the product which passes through the plane of the packing machine or of the address labelling machine.
In this manner the labels are positioned perpendicularly to the head title, i.e. they are not in compliance with some specific postal regulations which require a mutually parallel positioning between the head title and the address.
In order to overcome this disadvantage, the label has to be rotated by a 90.degree. angle before putting said label on the product.
Until today it has been very difficult to comply with said rules; in fact, based upon technical reasons, such as inserts being fed within the base product, the need for ease in packaging products advancing longitudinally to the drive direction, and other problems had two types of solutions. A first solution was to ask for an exception from the postal regulations and a second solution was to label the packaged product after having rotated said product by a 90.degree. angle, by means of a specific rotation apparatus associated with the labelling machine (this solution, as mentioned before, strongly jeopardizes the efficiency of the labelling machine or of the capacity to apply the address labels and causes additional costs to be incurred due to the presence of a second apparatus).